Known hot dog cookers have used rotatable roller tubes for heating and cooking hot dogs and like foods. In the prior art, the roller tubes had been mounted to the housing by bearings. However, the load exerted by the tube upon such bearings has caused deformation, and has caused wear and tear upon the bearing so that grease and other liquids have passed through the bearing seals to enter other parts of the housing such as the drive assembly of the housing.
Prior roller tube heating assemblies have used drive systems that have employed a chain driven by a rotatable sprocket or gear. The chain has been connected to sprockets or gears mounted at the ends of the roller tubes so that rotation of the drive sprocket or drive gear rotates the roller tubes. In the prior art, the roller heating tubes have been mounted in a row horizontally relative to the housing, or in some cases, at an angle relative to the housing, with their central axes extending in a straight line. However, there have been problems caused by the application of the drive chain force from the drive member directly to pulling a roller tube. This has resulted in distorting the end of that roller tube, and the bearing with which the roller tube is mounted to allow grease and liquids to pass by the bearing into enclosures such as into the area housing the drive components. Such a mechanism also involves relatively complex mechanical assemblies and larger numbers of parts.
Another method of cooking hot dogs involves use of a tilted grill which is moved back and forth over a heating surface on a box frame assembly. This arrangement results in a more uniform heat distribution to the hot dogs on the grill and removes the necessity for a separate drive mechanism for each roller. The oscillating motion of the grill rotates the hot dogs on the heating surface and allows for uniform cooking thus eliminating the need for rotating individual rollers. The grill typically is mounted on a motorized cam which is attached to one side of the grill. A lateral linkage is attached to the cam and extends through the frame assembly to a similar can arrangement on the opposite side of the grill. This arrangement causes undue wear on the opposite side because the rod may come out of alignment causing the motor to be overworked and eventually fail.
Thus, there is a need for an oscillating hot dog grill which eliminates the need for a lateral linkage. There is a further need for a hot dog grill which provides a simple mechanism for moving a grill between two fixed points. There is yet another need for a simple heat control to maintain uniform heat to the hot dogs.